Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Multiplayer Beta - Meet the Specialists

Learn more about the eight available Specialists.

by Scott Lowe on August 20, 2015

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 multiplayer, you’ll assume the role of nine elite Black Ops soldiers as part of the new Specialists system. Each character has its own unique look, personality, voice, and backstory within the Black Ops 3 universe. What’s more, Specialists introduce a completely new dynamic to multiplayer through the introduction of Specialist weapons and abilities.

Before the start of a match, you’ll have a chance to choose a Specialist and either their signature weapon or ability. Specialist weapons provide devastating offensive capabilities, like Outrider’s Sparrow—a compound bow with explosive bolts—or Ruin’s Gravity Spikes, which deliver an explosive shockwave to enemies within their blast radius. Specialist abilities on the other hand provide brief tactical advantages, like Prophet’s Glitch, which lets you flash back to a previous location.

As you progress in the multiplayer beta, you’ll have an opportunity to try out eight of the nine Specialists launching with Black Ops 3 on November 6. Get up to speed on the eight available Specialists and their weapons and abilities below:

Callsign: Ruin

Real Name: Donnie Walsh

Bio: Raised in a military family in a tough neighborhood, he is fearless and headstrong, an infantry soldier through and through. He uses his unique abilities to rush into battle and surprise the enemy with sheer force.

Weapon: Gravity Spikes – Creates a devastating area of effect shockwave in the surrounding area.

Ability: Overdrive – Initiates a burst of speed that accelerates all movement for a short period of time.

Callsign: Outrider

Real Name: Alessandra Castillo

Bio: Developed keen observation skills growing up in the streets of the Favela, traversing the rooftops to watch the action of the city below, and this earned her a place in the ranks of the Brazilian Special Forces. She outsmarts enemies by finding them before they have a chance to know what hit them.

Weapon: Sparrow – Compound bow w/explosive bolts and variable range.

Ability: Vision Pulse – Pulses the surrounding area to reveal the location of all enemies within range.

Callsign: Prophet

Real Name: David Wilkes

Bio: Wilkes got his first set of cybernetic augmentations while serving in the British Engineering Corps. Five years and many upgrades later, he is the embodiment of the cutting edge of human weaponry on the battlefield, using his superior technology to disrupt opponents’ tactics before moving in for the kill.

Weapon: Tempest – Charge-shot weapon that fires an arc of electricity, shocking targets and chaining to all nearby enemies.

Ability: Glitch – Flash back to a previous position with this system mod that hacks the battlefield simulation grid.

Callsign: Battery

Real Name: Erin Baker

Bio: The only daughter and youngest child of five siblings, Erin Baker always had to fight to get her way. Following in a family tradition of over 100 years of military service, and watching her brothers enter the US Army one-by-one, she finally graduated high school and enrolled herself. Driven to excel by her ongoing rivalry with her brothers, she volunteered for Airborne School, before crushing the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program. Heavily armored, she fearlessly operates ahead of the front lines, nimbly traversing urban environments, as she destroys HVTs with salvoes of advanced high-explosive munitions.

Weapon: War Machine – Grenade launcher that fires bouncing grenades, which detonate after a shot time or by hitting an enemy directly.

Ability: Kinetic Armor – Reactive armor that deflects enemy bullets away from the body. Still vulnerable to headshots and non-bullet damage while active.

Callsign: Seraph

Real Name: Zhen Zhen

Bio: Militant enforcer of the 54I crime syndicate’s rule of law. She is known for her focused and unflinching combat discipline, striking fear within the ranks of the cartel.

Ability: Combat Focus – Triggers a bonus multiplier to score earned towards Scorestreaks for a period of time.

Callsign: Nomad

Real Name: Tavo Rojas

Bio: Last surviving member of an elite Rapid Deployment Force unit specialized in Jungle Warfare, Rojas has gone off-grid using his survivalist training to stay alive. At home in the wild, he uses his skills to turn the environment against his foes.

Ability: Rejack – Recover from near death by injecting a nanoparticle serum into the bloodstream.

Callsign: Reaper

Real Name: Experimental War Robot (EWR)

Bio: Started as an expensive military R&D project to supplement Special Operations soldiers in the field, the EWR was a cutting-edge prototype combat robot, the most advanced in the world at the time. Budget overruns and embarrassing political incidents left the project all but a resource for scrap metal, except for the one prototype that remained.

Weapon: Scythe – Robotic arm that transforms into a high power Mini-Gun.

Bio: Next to nothing is known about the presumed wet-works Specialist, Spectre. The designation itself is a codename agreed upon by the various agencies that have pooled their intelligence on unsolved assassinations, inferring his or her existence based on either evidence found at the scene or from fragmentary reports given by shaken bystanders. Despite heavy redaction, all accounts suggest an individual capable of extraordinary stealth, able to evade or neutralize the most sophisticated of manned or automated security set-ups. In every case, Spectre’s victims have been ‘handled’ with surgically precise mid-line wounds with rarely any signs of struggle.